A riveting portrait of the great writer whose
stories became the basis of the Broadway musical Fiddler
on the Roof. Sholem Aleichem: Laughing
in the Darkness tells the tale of the rebellious genius
who created an entirely new literature. Plumbing the depths
of a Jewish world locked in crisis and on the cusp of profound
change, he captured that world with brilliant humor. Sholem
Aleichem was not just a witness to the creation of a new modern
Jewish identity, but one of the very men who forged it.

“An INVIGORATING
and FASCINATING biographical documentary that should be required
viewing for anyone with a love for the written word.”-- Phil Hall, Film Threat

“A wonderful look at the amazing
life of one of the 20th century's most beloved writers!!!”
-- Jeffrey Lyons, Lyon’ Den Radio

“BRILLIANTLY
ABSORBING. Dorman does a MAGNIFICENT job. Plus the still photography
is to die for.”– Judith Gelman Myers,
Hadassah Magazine

Far from the folksy grandfather many people
mistake him to be, Sholem Aleichem was a sophisticated modern
writer and cosmopolitan intellectual, an artist the equal
of Chekhov or Gogol or Isaac Babel. His work left lasting
legacies in Israel and the Soviet Union, as well as in America
to which Sholem Aleichem immigrated twice, and where he died
in 1916. His funeral was attended by some 200,000 people.
It was the largest public funeral the city had ever witnessed
and announced the arrival of the American Jewish community
as a force to be reckoned with. In the following decades,
Sholem Aleichem’s work, especially his Teyve stories,
would be interpreted time and again by an American Jewish
community whose own identity was evolving over time.
Using rarely seen photographs and archive footage, the voices
of actors Peter Riegert and Rachel Dratch, and interviews
with leading experts such as Columbia’s Dan Miron, Harvard’s
Ruth Wisse, David Roskies of the Jewish Theological Seminary,
author and Yiddish translator Hillel Halkin, Aaron Lansky,
the founder of the National Yiddish Book Center, and Bel Kauffmann,
Sholem Aleichem's own granddaughter, the film brings to life
as never before Sholem Aleichem's world and his timeless stories.